Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth About Success

Columnist for The Times and best-selling author of Bounce: The myth of talent and the power of practice, Matthew Syed argues that the key to success is a positive attitude to failure. What links the Mercedes Formula One team with Google? What links Dave Braisford's Team Sky and the aviation industry?What is the connection between the inventor James Dyson and the footballer David Beckham? They are all Black Box Thinkers.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Mindset is one of those rare audio books that can help you make positive changes in your life and at the same time see the world in a new way. A leading expert in motivation and personality psychology, Carol Dweck has discovered in more than 20 years of research that our mindset is not a minor personality quirk: it creates our whole mental world. It explains how we become optimistic or pessimistic. It shapes our goals, our attitude toward work, and ultimately predicts whether or not we will fulfull our potential.

Outliers: The Story of Success

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Anders Ericsson has spent 30 years studying the special ones - the geniuses, sports stars and musical prodigies. And his remarkable finding, revealed in Peak, is that their special abilities are acquired through training. The innate 'gift' of talent is a myth. Exceptional individuals are born with just one unique ability, shared by us all - the ability to develop our brains and bodies through our own efforts.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Why do naturally talented people frequently fail to reach their potential while other far less gifted individuals go on to achieve amazing things? The secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a passionate persistence. In other words, grit. MacArthur Genius Award-winning psychologist Angela Duckworth shares fascinating new revelations about who succeeds in life and why.

Winners: And How They Succeed

The Sunday Times number-one best seller. How people succeed and how you can, too. Alastair Campbell knows all about winning. As Tony Blair's chief spokesman and strategist, he helped guide the Labour Party to victory in three successive general elections, and he's fascinated by what it takes to win. How do sports stars excel, entrepreneurs thrive, or individuals achieve their ambitions? Is their ability to win innate? Or is the winning mind-set something we can all develop?

My Turn: The Autobiography

Johan Cruyff is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in football history. Throughout his playing career, he was synonymous with Total Football, a style of play in which every player could play in any position on the pitch. Today his philosophy lives on in teams across Europe, from Barcelona to Bayern Munich, and players from Lionel Messi to Cesc Fabrecas.

Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't

Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work. This is not a crazy, idealised notion. In many successful organisations, great leaders are creating environments in which teams trust each other so deeply that they would put their lives on the line for each other. Yet other teams, no matter what incentives are offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why? Today's workplaces tend to be full of cynicism, paranoia and self-interest.

Key Person of Influence: The Five-Step Method to Become One of the Most Highly Valued and Highly Paid People in Your Industry

Every industry revolves around Key People of Influence. Their names come up in conversation. They attract opportunities. They earn more money. Many people think it takes decades of hard work, academic qualifications and a generous measure of good luck to become a Key Person of Influence. This audiobook shows you that there is a five-step strategy for fast-tracking your way to the inner circle of the industry you love. Your ability to succeed depends on your ability to influence. Start now by listening to this audiobook.

Shane Lukas says:"A must hear/read book in order to survive and thrive in the 21st century"

Life Leverage: How to Get More Done in Less Time, Outsource Everything & Create Your Ideal Mobile Lifestyle

The Life Leverage philosophy is a way of living your life to get more done in less time, outsource everything and create your ideal mobile lifestyle. It is a way of thinking, feeling, deciding, doing, and then getting the results and feedback accordingly to build momentum and get closer to your vision and legacy.

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (Int'l Edit.)

Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their successes over and over? People like Martin Luther King, Jr.; Steve Jobs; and the Wright Brothers might have little in common, but they all started with why. Their natural ability to start with why enabled them to inspire those around them and to achieve remarkable things.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change

In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distil vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Popular blogger Cal Newport reveals the new key to achieving success and true meaning in professional life: the ability to master distraction. Many modern knowledge workers now spend most of their brain power battling distraction and interruption, whether because of the incessant pinging of devices, noisy open-plan offices or the difficulty of deciding what deserves their attention the most. When Cal Newport coined the term deep work on his popular blog, Study Hacks, in 2012, he found the concept quickly hit a nerve.

If I Could Tell You Just One Thing: Encounters with Remarkable People and Their Most Valuable Advice

Richard Reed built Innocent Drinks from a smoothie stall on a street corner to one of the biggest brands in Britain. He credits his success to four brilliant pieces of advice, each given to him just when he needed them most. Ever since, it has been Richard's habit, whenever he meets somebody he admires, to ask them for their best piece of advice. If they could tell him just one thing, what would it be? Richard has collected pearls of wisdom from some of the most remarkable, inspiring and game-changing people in the world.

The Chimp Paradox: The Acclaimed Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness

Leading consultant psychiatrist Steve Peters knows more than anyone how impulsive behaviour or nagging self-doubt can impact negatively on our professional and personal lives. In this, his first book, Steve shares his phenomenally successful mind-management programme that has been used to help elite athletes and senior managers alike to conquer their fears and operate with greater control, focus and confidence.

Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us

A book that will change how you think and transform how you live.Forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people - at work, at school, at home. It is wrong. As Daniel H. Pink explains in his paradigm-shattering book Drive, the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today's world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and the world.

Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure

Everything we know about solving the world's problems is wrong. Out: Plans, experts and above all, leaders. In: Adapting - improvise rather than plan; fail, learn, and try again. In this groundbreaking new book, Tim Harford shows how the world's most complex and important problems - including terrorism, climate change, poverty, innovation, and the financial crisis - can only be solved from the bottom up by rapid experimenting and adapting.

Blink

Intuition is not some magical property that arises unbidden from the depths of our mind. It is a product of long hours and intelligent design, of meaningful work environments, and particular rules and principles. This audiobook shows us how we can hone our instinctive ability to know in an instant, helping us to bring out the best in our thinking and become better decision-makers in our homes, offices, and in everyday life.

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his seminal work in psychology challenging the rational model of judgment and decision making, is one of the world's most important thinkers. His ideas have had a profound impact on many fields - including business, medicine, and politics - but until now, he has never brought together his many years of research in one book.

The Sports Gene: Talent, Practice and the Truth About Success

In this ground-breaking and entertaining exploration of athletic success, award-winning writer David Epstein gets to the heart of the great nature vs. nurture debate, and explodes myths about how and why humans excel. Along the way, Epstein exposes the flaws in the so-called 10,000-hour rule that states that rigorous practice from a young age is the only route to success.

The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

This is an audiobook for busy people. If you want less on your plate and more for your life and career, tune in to the #1 Wall Street Journal best seller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results. The ONE Thing will bring your life and your work into focus. Authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan teach you the tricks to cut through the clutter, achieve better results in less time, dial down stress, and master what matters to you.

How Google Works

Both Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg came to Google as seasoned Silicon Valley business executives, but over the course of a decade they came to see the wisdom in Coach John Wooden's observation that 'it's what you learn after you know it all that counts'. As they helped grow Google from a young start-up to a global icon, they relearned everything they knew about management.

Elon Musk

South African-born Elon Musk is the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. Musk wants to save our planet; he wants to send citizens into space, to form a colony on Mars; he wants to make money while doing these things; and he wants us all to know about it. He is the real-life inspiration for the Iron Man series of films starring Robert Downey, Jr. The personal tale of Musk's life comes with all the trappings one associates with a great, drama-filled story.

David and Goliath

David and Goliath is the dazzling and provocative new book from Malcolm Gladwell, best-selling author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and What the Dog Saw. Why do underdogs succeed so much more than we expect? How do the weak outsmart the strong? In David and Goliath Malcolm Gladwell takes us on a scintillating and surprising journey through the hidden dynamics that shape the balance of power between the small and the mighty.

Publisher's Summary

Winner of the Best New Writer category of the British Sports Book Awards 2011.

Why have all the sprinters who have run the 100 meters in under 10 seconds been black?

What's one thing Mozart, Venus Williams, and Michelangelo have in common?

Is it good to praise a child's intelligence?

Why are baseball players so superstitious?

Few things in life are more satisfying than beating a rival. We love to win and hate to lose, whether it's on the playing field or at the ballot box, in the office or in the classroom. In this bold new look at human behavior, award-winning journalist and Olympian Matthew Syed explores the truth about our competitive nature: why we win, why we don't, and how we really play the game of life.

Bounce reveals how competition - the most vivid, primal, and dramatic of human pursuits - provides vital insight into many of the most controversial issues of our time, from biology and economics, to psychology and culture, to genetics and race, to sports and politics.

Backed by cutting-edge scientific research and case studies, Syed shatters long-held myths about meritocracy, talent, performance, and the mind. He explains why some people thrive under pressure and others choke, and weighs the value of innate ability against that of practice, hard work, and will. From sex to math, from the motivation of children to the culture of big business, Bounce shows how competition provides a master key with which to unlock the mysteries of the world.

p>PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

As I started listening I thought the book was a disaster because it seemed to be a rehash of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. But then it offered rather more compelling evidence that Gladwell - such as the huge proportion of top British table tennis players coming out of Reading (one small town) and interesting take on the placebo effect (including religion) in sport. The end was a disappointing treatment of genetic influences in sporting prowess (Syed is keen to deny their existence completely), but he seemed to have forgotten that in just the previous chapter he was tentatively arguing for allowing athletes (and other humans) to experiment with genetic enhancements, such as resistance to cold viruses and raising intelligence. He does not offer any convincing explanation as to why certain groups of east africans dominate endurance races, and Jamaican do the same for sprints. It is facile to say that statements such as 'generally blacks are superior at sport' are false. Of course they are. But there is something to explain when only one white man (Lemaitre) has run 100m in under 10 secs. Syed's answer is 'stereotyping'. Hmm. Still, well worth reading.

I saw Matthew Syed first when interviewed after Rory McRoy meltdown at Augusta Georgia. I researched his book and it certainly looked worth reading given his background as a top table tennis player who had his own meltdown at the Olympics.

But this book goes well beyond what the title suggests. This book brings together a great deal of research which suggests that the notion of talent does not exist. As in another title called the talent myth there is a tremendous amount of research to suggest that hard work beats everything and talent is a myth created by people who play down the amount of effort they have put into achieving success.

Having read this book and lead me on to a great many other similar piece of work which is definitely changing the way I think.

being heavily dyslexic means I have had to work harder than most to achieve results, and this book has helped improve my self-esteem.

I'm finding this quite a hard book to get into - although, after looking at reviews, I think I should persevere!! I don't find the narrators voice very captivating. I think it may be a better book to read than listen to as I have dipped into various sections that have been more interesting.

Having read malcolm gladwells outliers was keen to find out syeds take on the issue. A decent explanation though nothing greatly new from outliers.

In agreement with the concept that true effort and work at gaining knowledge as the most important thing but think it does downplay the role of genetics somewhat. Too much is placed on genetics but it's undeniable that myself as a 5 7" white man was never going to play in the NBA no matter the graft and effort

As a professional athlete and successful scientist, I can say nothing achieve unless one works hard for it! (10 years being the #1 in my home coutry from when I was 14, with loosing any matches! it was hard work and dedication)

There aren't many books that I'd listen to straight away once I'd finished, but this is definitely one. Excellent subject matter and insights into science and psychology behind some of the greatest sporting heroes of our time.

Very eye opening, especially if you're new to the talent versus effort debate. The book started being a bit too close to Malcom Gladwell's "Outliers", which it quotes several times, but the 1st person experiences from the author bring a very good perspective and great examples. Very well narrated as well. Highly recommend.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

Andy

Westport, CT, United States

25/05/10

Overall

"takes us beyond Outliers"

Fabulous narration. Matthew Syed does a deeper dive into what drives talent, beyond where Gladwell took us. Well researched insights are worth plowing through some familiar ground to get there.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

V.D.

BEAVERCREEK, OH, United States

28/09/10

Overall

"great book from an essential perspective"

the chapter on drugs felt out of place, but the rest of the book was awesome. even if you are familiar with some of the content (as i was from reading outliers and other similar books), the material in this book is more exhaustive, and Syed's perspective on the topic (as a world champion and an outlier himself) is essential to understanding topics like expert chunking (e.g. the part where he plays tennis with a pro). great book

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Nothing really matters

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

19/07/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Great book about top performance"

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed this book. It explains very interesting aspects of top performances in sports and other areas. It's one of the few books I've read that discusses the phenomenon of "choking under pressure". (Come on researchers, do more research on choking.)

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Peter Levius

Prague, Czech Republic

07/05/10

Overall

"One of my favorite books"

I have been collecting Self Development books for years but I got to say this one is one of the best. It gives you a clear goal, if you want to be best in your field you need to invest 10 years or 10000 hours to hone your skills, it is not about the talent. Syed provides lot of data to support this argument and it got me to set up a new goals instantly :)

7 of 9 people found this review helpful

Juarez

Austin, Texas, United States

03/09/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"You've heard this book before"

The book shameles replays theories and stories from Outliers, Talent is Overrated among others. There's nothing new to to subject, and the fact that the author is a an ex-athlete and not an expert on the subject tells a lot about the book

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

TravelingDentist

North Carolina, USA

01/06/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Very similar to Talent is overrated and Outliers"

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. Tells us things we want to hear. The harder to try at something, the better you'll get. It levels the playing field. Letting us know that just about anything is within our grasp with enough practice.

What did you like best about this story?

I love the fact that he used his personal experience as a ping pong champion to illustrate the concepts in the book.

If you could give Bounce a new subtitle, what would it be?

There is no such thing as talent.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Louann

CHARLOTTE, NC, United States

06/02/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"Loved it"

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes I recommend, I enjoyed the energy of the narrator. His narratives describing the theories were excellent.

Have you listened to any of James Clamp???s other performances before? How does this one compare?